Algeria Rosneft and Sonatrach: the prospect of a messy divorce

摘要

Africa Energy Intelligence understandsrnthat Algeria’s government hasrnordered the Agence Nationale pourrnla Valorisation des Ressources enrnHydrocarbure (Alnaft) to handle arndispute between Sonatrach and thernRussian state-owned giant Rosneft.rnStrapped for cash, Rosneft, in conjunctionrnwith the Russian firm Transtroygas,rnhas fallen quite far behindrnin developing its 245-S block onrnwhich the Takuazet and North Tesselitrnfields are located. Rosneft no longerrnhas the wherewithal to put the fieldsrninto production, and especially sincernthe plunge in the oil price in 2014. Inrnaddition, Rosneft’s chairman sincern2012, Igor Sechin, who’s a closernfriend of Vladimir Putin, is payingrnpriority to spending the company’srnmoney in Russia. If nothing happensrnby the end of 2017, Sonatrach is thinkingrnof cancelling the contract or ofrnselling the Russian’s share to anotherrnoperator, either private or public likernSonatrach. But Alnaft realizes thatrnit’s walking on a tightrope in the matter.rnIt doesn’t want to ruffle Russia’srnfeathers and especially so becausernthe fields in question aren’t all thatrnimportant: the forecast is three billionrncubic meter of gas per year. Russiansrnare simply thinking of quitting therncountry, writing off the hundreds ofrnmillions of dollars they’ve invested.rnThe issue could be decided withrnRosneft’s new partners, Glencorernand Qatar’s sovereign fund. Theyrnhave acquired 19.5% of the Russianrnoil company.